Almost like Hugh had expected, the Rat King charged at him with a gaping mouth, aiming to eat and swallow him up like a piece of candy. Hugh didn't hesitate even in the face of the gaping Rat King's mouth as he swung his axe over his head.
The axe struck right on the two large front teeth. The impact had Hugh's arms trembling, but thankfully he managed to at least momentarily push off the Rat King, which gave him a few precious moments to recover.
Despite how hard the messenger had emphasized the Scorched Earth Rat King's strength and how dangerous it would be to face it, Hugh still had some doubts. How could a being in a low level plane eat nothing more than first level rats and still grow to a level where it was practically unrivaled, vastly surpassing the strength that the tiny rats would have had combined?
Hugh was used to things making sense, and the Scorched Earth Rat King didn't fit into that criteria, so he still held some hopes of actually being able to put up a decent fight against the Rat King. But after the first exchange, those hopes were quickly discarded, and Hugh sacrificed even more of his mobility for greater strength and defense.
The Rat King was obviously more interested in him than in the forest. Hugh decided to take advantage of that and focus solely on defense. If given the opportunity, he would still try and land a strike. With his strength, it wouldn't be too surprising if the Rat King got injured. Although nothing had happened to its teeth after Hugh struck there, it wasn't surprising since the teeth are usually one of the hardest parts on rat type beasts.
The Rat King stepped back after its attempt to eat the human in front of it ended in failure, but only for a moment as it lunged at Hugh again. This time with its right paw reaching out to strike Hugh and tear him off the ground.
Although Hugh was slower in general due to his wooden transformation, the slowness didn't affect his dynamic vision, and he clearly saw the paw headed for his torso. He was already in a position where he was prepared to receive attacks, but he lowered his center of gravity and placed the shaft of his axe alongside his body to catch the blow.
The Rat King struck Hugh with the palm of the paw, but unlike the expected outcome where the human would be sent flying, and the Rat King could take that opportunity to snatch him out of the air and consume him, Hugh was only pushed to the side, practically creating a ditch in the ground.
Hugh only grunted after being struck, but the impact would have resulted in serious injuries if not for him further transforming his body into a tree trunk. Thankfully the power of the strike wasn't at a level he would be unable to endure for an extended period. Well, he was confident he could continue enduring as long as the Rat King wasn't going easy on him.
While the Rat King wasn't going easy on anyone, it was still far from reaching a mature state and having sufficient strength to make its predecessors cower in shame. So instead of wasting its power and needlessly weakening itself, it saved energy by only using the amount of strength it deemed necessary to deal with the obstruction in its path.
While the Scorched Earth Rat King was undoubtedly strong itself, it could also be because it was more like a vessel for strength. Instead of training or growing stronger by itself, the Rat King took the strength and mana of other beings and things and stuffed itself with it. If the Rat King recklessly wasted all of its energy, it would lower its maximum output for the time being unless he could refill or increase the storage.
With the few historical appearances of the Scorched Earth Rat King, there had naturally not been any attempt to study it in acute detail to the point where the tiniest bit of information regarding its strength and habits were known. Thus only the Rat King itself was aware that if it continued delaying and wasting its energy while still weak, without a way to get more, it could possibly suffer a defeat in the near future.
The Rat King was well aware of what would happen if it did get defeated. Since it couldn't allow that to happen for obvious reasons, it decided to go all out and annihilate the human that had withstood two of its attacks already.
Unlike the previous attacks where the Rat King had attacked Hugh from up-close, the Rat King backed away and started emitting large amounts of earth and fire attribute mana. After a few short moments, a large clump of burning rock appeared in the air high above Hugh.
Ever since the Rat King stepped back and started using magic instead of going for another swing, Hugh had been on high alert, and when he saw the meteor targeted at him, he knew it wasn't time to stand still and try to endure another blow. He might be sturdy enough to withstand a full-on frontal attack from a historically disastrous beast, but headbutting a meteor wasn't exactly something an ordinary mid level mage could do.
Since the Rat King had deemed the human as mostly incapable and cowardly as Hugh defended passively, it concentrated more on the meteor than keeping its guard up against a possible counterattack.
Hugh knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge the meteor with his slowed-down movements. Even if he released the transformation, he wouldn't survive the blast and shockwave of the meteor striking the ground.
With both retreat and defense not being an option, the only thing left for Hugh to do was to attack.
He wasn't sure he could close the distance between himself and the Rat King while still keeping the transformation before the Rat King either finishes its magic or notices him. And he needed the defenses and strength his transformation gave him if he wanted to attack the Rat King and either disrupt the casting completely or at least severely injure the Rat King.
Since he couldn't directly approach the Rat King, Hugh figured out another way to attack it.
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